#chestnut mares

[hunk-never-dies]

Never felt so judged by two horses in my life 🤣

[eponastory]

I now have an oops baby!

[rayless-reblogs]

Chestnut Mare, Beware

That isn't just a cheesy title, it's a saying among horesepeople. For ages, there's been this belief that chestnut mares are the strangest, angriest, bossiest, most unpredictable horses you'll find.

Definitions:

Mares: Adult female horses.

Chestnuts: Those horses that are reddish-brown all over, or mostly reddish-brown with blond manes and tails. Not the ones with black manes and tails.

This hay-snarfing beast was found on Pixabay.

Now, this may in part be a combination of transferred misogyny and bias against redheads, both of which are silly to begin with and even sillier when you apply them to livestock. And there are lots of unpredictable horses of all colors, mares, stallions, and geldings alike. But I'm bringing it up because it is an idea you'll run across from time to time.

I first learned it when I was little, from a relative who, when she was a teenager, had a beautiful chestnut mare named Lady. Lady once wandered away from a picnic she was on and collided with an ice cream truck. She was fine.

I saw this concept borne out when I myself started riding and met Star, a chestnut mare who used to surge around in her stall going in furious, emphatic circles that benefited her in no perceptible way. Including when I was in the stall with her.

My dad, who loves European military history, once told me a story of an officer's horse who was just standing around one day in battle – and then reached around with her head and eviscerated a nearby man with her teeth. Chessie mare again.

The most famous chestnut mare in literature is Ginger from Black Beauty, an angry, violent mare traumatized by bad handling, so this stereotype could go back to the 1800s and earlier.

Black Beauty, first edition, taken from Wikipedia.

It's also true I've met chestnut mares who weren't particularly high-strung and just came across as normal horses. One was named Rose. Another one was Valentine. They were sweeties. Lots of people have met chestnut mares who were darlings to be around. Sgt Reckless, the famous war horse of the Korean War, was a chestnut mare and she kept her head amidst all kinds of chaos, including heavy fire.

Sgt Reckless, early 1950s, taken from Wikipedia.

But the stereotype persists.

Furthermore, you'll find that there's something of a bias against mares in general. Some of it is stupid, like manly men refusing to ride anything but intact stallions. But mares have a reputation of being unpredictable and headstrong. This may be because, unlike female cats and dogs, mares generally aren't spayed. Mares are the primary guardians of their foals, and a foal can walk and run around and get into trouble within hours of its birth. So it serves mares to be extremely vigilant, assertive, and territorial because that's what keeps their babies alive.  

George Stubbs, Mares and Foals in a Landscape. Note that the chestnut mare in the middle is the angriest.

This is a generalization, but many people feel that geldings (castrated males) are simply easier to work with, being much more low-key. (Again, a generalization; there are plenty of high-strung geldings too.) This might be why in movies, you'll find that the beautiful mare that movie's about is often played by a gelding.

I’m sure people who work with horses on the daily will have further insights (and possibly corrections), but these are some of my thoughts.

[sacred-andthe-propane]

daisy <3

[hopelessly-dizzy]

Sahalie, Warm Springs mustang